


About a Neighbor

by sultrysweet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Curse, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-09 22:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3267323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrysweet/pseuds/sultrysweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan isn't at all reliable. She's selfish and a little careless and Henry Mills is fascinated by her. When Regina moved in to the quiet neighborhood, she was not expecting someone like Emma to come into her life, but thanks to Henry it seems she'll never be able to get rid of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based off NBC's "About a Boy". Some lines are borrowed from the pilot episode and a couple of lines come from the pilot of OUaT. I'm using this for Swan Queen Week as the No Curse prompt since it fits, but I've thought about starting this for abut a month or so now. Also, some details about Emma's life are closer to the backstory of Will in "About a Boy", but I figured it would work a little better considering how often Henry will be hanging around Emma's place. You'll kind of get it once you start reading it.

Walking down the street, Emma saw a lot of families pass by. There were small kids running around at the park and playing on the jungle gym under watchful eyes, there were babies settled in their strollers while their parents pushed them around the neighborhood, and there were older kids free of their parents as they play games like hacky sack and kick ball. It was all fine and well. She didn’t mind sharing her city with parents and kids alike, but she wasn’t big on family. She never really had one. A foster kid herself, she worked harder than most people to even survive. It wasn’t until she was twenty-three that she got to where she was currently in life. She got to sit on her ass all day and do what she pleased in a nice house in a nice residential area in a nice town.

She wrote a couple of songs for an up-and-coming band her boyfriend was in that had broken up a few years ago, just like she and he broke up even before the band, but one song in particular made it big and made the band famous. At least locally famous. And for the last six years, she received large royalty checks once a month that smelled like freedom.

The band didn’t really go anywhere the first year when they had done a lame ass tour around small town dive bars and then right before the band made it big, she got pregnant. Knocked up by the base guitarist Neal Cassidy whom she’d been dating for the last two years, since she’d run away from the group home after she determined there was no way she’d get adopted at fifteen. That was her. Seventeen and pregnant.

Then the band had started to book actual gigs that made them enough money to eat something other than Ramen noodles and spaghetti all week. When they’d started to make a name for themselves, Emma received less attention from the father of her child and the closer she got to her due date, the more she worried she’d be a single mom left to raise Neal’s kid while he lived his dream. And just like that, with only a month to go before Emma’s due date, the band signed a record deal with her songs as if to prove she had been right to worry.

Neal had formed _The Lost Boys_ , a name Emma had helped him come up with and the others liked it, so he was seen as the leader even though he wasn’t lead singer or guitarist. Thankfully, as the band leader, he was a decent enough guy to cut Emma in on the songs she wrote and that was where his decency stopped.

The record label had promised the group everything they ever could’ve imagined and being a teen dad was going to keep Neal from getting the true experience of most of what they were offered. He’d moved out, let her keep the apartment she couldn’t pay for without his help, and ran off with his bandmates to enjoy his fifteen minutes in the spotlight just two weeks before Emma went into premature labor.

 _The Lost Boys_ had signed a record deal, but Emma Swan hadn’t. She had a job making shitty tips as a waitress and no real or stable way to support herself let alone her baby. Alone in the hospital room at 8:15, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

She never even held him before she let him go.

She made sure he wasn’t just thrown into the system like she had been and had social services update her that he’d officially been adopted before she officially made the adoption closed once and for all. The last she heard about him was that she’d legally signed him over to a single mother who loved him from the moment she saw him and could provide for him in every way Emma couldn’t.

It was then she got into the bail bonds business and when she started to make enough money from bringing in anyone that missed their court date, she quit her normal day job as waitress and worked more cases for a bigger payout. She didn’t desperately need the extra money. What she made at that point was enough to keep up with her then current rent, but she didn’t want to live in the apartment she’d shared with her ex-boyfriend or sleep in the bed where she’d conceived the son she gave up.

Six months later, the first royalty check arrived and she cried. It was twice as much as she’d made on most of her regular cases and if she’d known Neal had at least made sure she got what was owed to her for those songs, maybe she wouldn’t have given up that little boy.

So it was easy to understand why Emma didn’t mind families or children, but also didn’t want to be around them. Just then, a woman with her little girl on her hip walked by and Emma noticed how fit the woman looked. She had light brown hair, semi-sculpted arms, and yoga pants that hugged her beautifully toned thighs. Emma turned to face the woman as she walked away and almost moaned at her round ass as it swayed from side to side with each step she took farther away from Emma.

Then she noticed a pair of eyes on her and saw that the girl the woman carried on her hip was looking right at her. The girl had light brown hair like her mom and she wore it in a ponytail that bobbed up and down in time with the insanely fine woman’s steps who held her.

Emma sighed and spun on her heel. She continued to walk in the exact opposite direction of the woman, because while a woman with a kid didn’t completely bother her, she wasn’t about to pick up a single mom in front of that kid. Plus, she usually tried to avoid single moms or moms at all. She didn’t want someone with that kind of baggage and she didn’t want to get involved with anyone that could potentially want a more long term commitment from her. She had a one and done thing going on. Nothing but one night stands and casual sex as far as a love life for her. It was just easier that way.

As for men, they no longer held her interest. Neal was her first serious boyfriend and her last. Ten years later and she still wasn’t sure how the guy managed to get her pregnant. She liked him, really liked him because he understood what it was like to feel unwanted and easily discarded, but she remembered what it felt like with him and what it felt like with her first best friend, and at the time her only friend, Lily. Completely different. And she’d wanted to sleep with Lily almost two hours after they’d met. It took Emma four months before she finally slept with Neal. So maybe she and Neal connected on a certain level, but the fairer sex had always had a particular hold on Emma. She was more than okay with that.

Another woman approached. Black hair, brown eyes, a small and rounded gut that extended a little over the waistband of her jeans, and there was no kid with her.

* * *

Shirts were off, her jeans were unbuttoned, the other woman’s jeans were unbuttoned  _and_ unzipped, and Emma was on her back on her bed while she watched the other woman take hasty control of the situation. She wasn’t much for submission, but sometimes Emma liked to watch a woman move above her.

All was going well and she was happily about to get laid when a phone went off. It wasn’t hers so it must have been the other woman’s, which proved to be true when the other woman pushed off Emma with a breathy apology and grabbed her phone from her purse near the bedroom door.

“Ah, crap. I have to go,” the woman said and started to redress. “There’s this last minute dinner thing that I have to help with for tonight and nothing’s ready so—”

“What? No. Do you really have to go right now,” Emma asked.

“Unfortunately,” the woman answered and then headed for the door. “Call me.”

“Yeah, okay,” Emma sighed with defeat and then remembered. “Hey, wait!”

Still only in her unbuttoned jeans and no shirt, she fled the bedroom, grabbed her plaid button down and chased after the woman. She threw the shirt on while she ran from the bedroom to the living room, but left it unbuttoned as she opened the front door.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Emma called out as she headed down the pathway to the curb. “How am I supposed to call you if I don’t have your number?”

The other woman didn’t seem to hear her as she walked around the front of her car at the curb then got in.

“Your number,” Emma asked from the passenger window after the woman closed her car door on the other side.

“What,” the woman asked and rolled the window down to hear her.

“Your number. I need it if you want me to call?”

“Oh, right. Uh,” the woman started to look around her car then picked up a pen she kept in her glove box. “Give me your hand.”

Emma stuck her arm through the open window and the woman scrawled out her number.

“See you later,” the woman said as she set aside the pen then started her car.

She didn’t waste any time before she drove off and Emma chuckled as she looked between the car as it drove further away and the ink on the palm of her hand. She turned back toward the house and stopped for a second when she realized she had company. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been there or what they’d seen, but there was a brunette haired woman with small brown haired boy next to her.

The woman was in a gray dress and the boy only measured to her stomach. Her brown eyes were narrowed in a judgmental and upset glare while the boy looked at her with curiosity in his gaze.

Emma chuckled again and waved at them.

The brunette’s eyes traveled from Emma’s face to her hand and raised a brow at what she saw. Emma looked at her hand and realized it was the same one the woman had written her number on.

“Uh, yeah,” Emma mumbled--more to herself than the other two--as a lame conversation starter.

Emma looked at the older model Mercedes in the driveway that the woman and the boy, whom Emma assumed was the woman’s son, stood in front of and noticed all the boxes and bags and a couple of pillows inside it.

“You two just moving in?”

The boy only continued to stare at her and the woman pulled him closer to her in a very protective move, her eyes focused on Emma with no indication that she really wanted to know the blonde or even have a conversation with her.

“Alright then,” Emma broke the silence. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

Emma walked, half-dressed and barefoot, back to her two story house that was only a short distance from the nearly identical house next door. She thought about the woman out front as she closed the front door on her way inside. The dress didn’t seem to do her much justice, but it gave Emma a good look at the brunette’s legs. Her legs didn’t go on for days. She wasn’t all that tall, but they looked smooth and fit but not too toned. She’d also noted how the woman’s son’s skin was more on the fair side while the woman had more of an olive tone. She was exactly Emma’s type, except for one thing. She had a kid.

* * *

Around dinner, Emma made herself comfortable in her small but very nice and very green backyard. She had a beer in her hand as she reclined in a lounge chair and played music through her phone, which was placed in a dock that allowed her to hear the songs through external speakers that sounded much better than the one speaker that was on her phone. Rock music filled the yard and her eyes slipped closed as she started to relax.

“Excuse me,” a woman called out over the wooden fence that separated the two properties.

Emma sighed. So no sex and no chance of relaxing any time soon it seemed. She stood up and peered over from her seat at her neighbor. Her new, hot neighbor with the kid.

“Yeah?”

“I’m in the middle of a yoga session so could you turn down that awful music?”

“Uh, you can do yoga inside, can’t you?”

“It’s a beautiful day out,” she argued. “It’s a breath of fresh air after being in the car for days. Why can’t you listen to your music inside?”

“Because it’s a nice day out,” Emma smartly repeated the woman’s reason. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I caught your name earlier.”

“Yes, you might have been a little too preoccupied to care,” the woman sniffed.

“Not as preoccupied as I would have liked,” Emma said and got up from her chair before she started to walk toward the fence.

The woman huffed then reluctantly said, “Regina.”

“Well, hi, Regina. I’m Emma. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

“Hey, Mom!”

The back door opened and the kid rushed onto the porch. His eyes went from Regina to Emma.

“Oh. Hey,” he greeted Emma and looked between the two women again.

“Hey,” she responded.

“Do you need something, Henry,” Regina turned to the kid and asked.

“You know,” he started to say and looked back at Emma. “My mom does yoga at least once a day. Maybe you should join her sometime.”

“Henry,” Regina partly scolded, a little strict but also almost embarrassed.

“Uh, yoga’s not my thing, Kid.”

“Oh, well, I just thought you might have been working out earlier. You know, when we first got here? Your shirt was open and you were out of breath.”

Emma smirked and Regina glared daggers at her.

“Henry, unless you need something from me I think you should go back inside,” Regina instructed.

“Okay, but Grandpa’s on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”

Regina looked at Henry then sighed as she turned back to Emma.

“My son is at a very impressionable age so if you could keep your depraved sexual exploits away from him, that would be greatly appreciated,” Regina said then headed toward the house.

Henry was still on the porch near the back door and Emma wanted to laugh at Regina’s previous words. Instead, she came up with a witty retort.

“Have you had _any_ exploits?”

Regina looked over her shoulder as she reached Henry and glared at Emma again while Emma saw the boy shake his head with slightly widened eyes. Such a cute and innocent expression and so very, very truthful coming from a kid.

Emma chuckled to herself as Regina ushered Henry inside and said, “Didn’t think so.”

* * *

A week passed without any incidents between Emma and Regina and Emma had finally had sex with someone other than herself for the first time in nine days. Life was good again and Emma could properly relax. Until there were a few rapid knocks on her back door that particular day.

Emma opened the door to a familiar face she didn’t expect to see. Apparently the kid didn’t like to stay put and avoid places he really shouldn’t have been.

“My mom’s not home and I forgot my key,” Henry said and then walked straight past Emma and into her house without permission.

“Whoa, hey, Kid,” Emma shut the door behind him and protested his intrusion.

“My name is Henry,” he corrected. “Got any juice?”

Henry dropped his backpack on the floor near the couch in the living room and went to the refrigerator.

She didn’t understand how he could feel so comfortable in a stranger’s house, how he could feel comfortable in her house and around her of all people. She didn’t do kids. Had her behavior and their lack of previous interaction not made that clear enough?

“Don’t you think you should call your mom? Let her know you’re here? I’m sure she’d drop everything to come home and let you in. Or at least she’d feel better to know that you’re here and you’re safe.”

“She should leave a key with you. You _are_ our neighbor and it makes sense that if this happens again…”

Emma sighed while Henry helped himself to some orange juice.

“Listen, I am _not_ the neighbor you leave a spare key with, okay,” Emma rhetorically asked him. “I’m not gonna, like, kick you out right now, but you can’t just come over like this.”

Henry licked the juice off his lips and set the glass down, but he didn’t move or otherwise respond to Emma.

“My mom doesn’t really like you,” he blurted out after moment, not quite a response to what Emma said but not silence either.

“Well, I’m not completely sold on her rigid personality either.”

“Maybe if you talk to her—”

“What? No. No, no, no. She’ll come get you, take you back to your house and then that’s it. I’m not getting involved. Now give me your mom’s number so I can let her know you’re here.”

“Don’t know it by heart. It’s on the fridge at home.”

He smiled like he was getting away with something.

“Seriously? I think you know it and just don’t want to tell me.”

“Maybe,” he smiled wider.

Emma rolled her eyes and collapsed onto one of the chairs at the bar-half of the counter that contained the kitchen sink, extra counter space, and cabinets down below where her trash can and cleaning supplies resided. She puffed out a heavy breath and waited with him until she could give him back to his mom and hopefully never have to go through the after school babysitting routine again.

“My mom doesn’t have a lot of friends here yet,” Henry spoke up after a few minutes.

“You just moved in. Give it time and I’m sure she’ll have plenty of stuck up friends just like her to invite over.”

“But…until then maybe _you_ could be her friend.”

“Okay, that really isn’t gonna happen.”

“Why not? I think you two could be good friends.”

Emma laughed.

“We’re nothing alike, Kid.”

“Isn’t there a saying that opposites attract?”

“Yeah, but—”

“If it’s true then why couldn’t you be friends with her?”

“Because she and I aren’t the kind of opposites that mix well together. Do you get what I mean?”

Henry shrugged.

“I guess?”

“I’m sure your mom’s…something, but...I barely know her. Or you.”

“So get to know her. And me.”

“I don’t get to know people. I find people. Or, at least I _used_ to find people.”

“Why?”

“Why did I find people or why don’t I _still_ find people?”

“Both.”

Emma sighed and explained, “I used to find people because it was my job to find people. I stopped finding people because I didn’t need the money I got from doing that job anymore.”

“Was it really about money or was there another reason? Because my grandpa says some things aren’t as simple as money or no money or yes or no or black and white.”

“Your grandpa sounds pretty smart.”

“I think so. So why did you really quit your job finding people?”

Emma groaned then answered, “I guess because…I got tired of finding everyone else but the people I really wanted to find.”

“Who?”

“Just…people. They aren’t important. Not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because I never found them and they never found me and it’s clear to me after so many years of searching that they wanted it that way.”

“I’m sorry you couldn’t find them,” Henry said with a genuinely sympathetic look directed her.

Emma stared at him for a moment and furrowed her brow when she realized she was having a somewhat grown up conversation with the kid.

“Don’t be. If they didn’t want me to find them then I’m glad I didn’t find them. It just means that I don’t need them.”

“That’s not really true,” he argued.

And he was right.

* * *

“Henry Mills, I thought I told you to keep that key close and guard it with your life,” Regina lectured him as soon as she arrived then turned to Emma. “And why didn’t you call me as soon as he got here?”

“The kid wouldn’t give me your number. He told me he didn’t remember it,” Emma defended herself.

Regina sighed and looked at her son.

“I had him memorize it as soon as he learned how to coherently talk,” Regina explained to her, her eyes still focused on Henry as she spoke.

“Yeah, I felt like it was a lie and I even called him out on it, but he didn’t tell me anything.”

“You _felt_ likeit was a lie?”

“Yeah, I kind of have this sort of thing? Call it instinct or a super power or whatever, but—”

“You have a super power,” Henry perked up and asked.

“I can always tell when people are lying,” Emma nodded at Henry as she finally finished her sentence.

“Cool,” Henry exclaimed.

“So you claim you knew without a doubt he was lying to you and you still didn’t find another solution,” Regina stated the question.

“He’s still breathing, isn’t he? I kept him alive. And I immediately flagged you down when I heard you pull up. What more could I have done?”

“Get him to tell you my number! _That’s_ what more you could have done.”

“Mom, it wasn’t Emma’s fault,” Henry stepped in.

Regina sighed again.

“Fine. Why don’t I just give you my number and…maybe I’ll have a spare key made for you in case he locks himself out again. That way you can call me and tell me he’s home and you can let him in and then _this_ ,” Regina motioned between the three of them, “won’t happen again.”

Henry grinned and Emma caught it, but Regina missed it.

 _Sneaky bastard,_ Emma thought with an internal smirk as she saw how Henry had just gotten what he wanted.

* * *

The kid kept showing up over the next few days with lame excuses like he didn’t want to be alone in the house while his mom was still at work or that he was bored by himself and at one point, he tried to pretend like he’d left his key at home again. To that, Emma responded by letting him into his house with the spare key she’d only been given by Regina the previous day, but he wouldn’t let her leave once Emma was at the door.

“Will you stay with me,” he asked with big, puppy dog eyes that begged her to say yes.

She really didn’t want to, hadn’t really grown to like the kid enough to agree to something like that within the week and a half he’d been her next door neighbor, but she sent a text to Regina that she’d let him into the house and asked if she could and should stay with him.

Regina replied with: **I’ll be home in twenty minutes. If he wants you to stay, you should stay. He might otherwise follow you home anyway. We should talk when I get there.**

In truth, Emma knew Regina was right because she hadn’t been able to shake the kid since he and Regina moved in. Henry probably would have nagged her as she walked the short distance back to her place and he would have welcomed himself inside and welcomed himself to her food and then she’d be in the same situation, except it would have all happened in her house and not his.

So she stayed with him, watched a little bit of TV as he had his afternoon snack, and dreaded the sound of a car door closing outside.

Regina walked in and Emma’s eyes found hers in seconds. She looked kind of tired, most likely due to work, and slight tension filled the room with their impending conversation.

Henry barely paid her any attention when Regina closed the door and dropped her purse on the end table in the hall.

“Henry, do you have any homework tonight,” Regina asked.

“Uh…maybe?”

Henry looked up at her where she stood just behind the couch with a guilty expression and she hummed.

“Why don’t you get started on it,” Regina phrased it like a declarative statement that left no room to argue. “I need to have a talk with our new neighbor.”

Emma felt like a kid called into the principal’s office and there was a time in her life when that happened frequently. Being alone to discuss something with Regina, however, actually felt worse and a little more intimidating.

Henry whipped his head back and forth between Regina and Emma and then gave the blonde a sympathetic look.

“Yeah,” Henry bent to his mother’s will. “I’ll see you later, Emma.”

“See ya, Kid,” Emma said as Henry removed himself from the couch and immediately went upstairs with his backpack.

Regina walked around to stand in front of the couch, but she didn’t sit. Emma stiffened and wasn’t sure whether that meant she should stand up to be level with Regina while they talked or if she should just stay put.

“It’s clear to me that I can’t keep Henry from you,” Regina started to talk, and Emma supposed that meant she could stay put.

“Apparently not,” Emma replied.

“And we live only a few steps away from each other so even if I tried to keep _you_ away from _him_ , it would be futile considering how often we’re most likely going to be running into each other.”

“Yep,” Emma nodded.

Regina took a deep breath and waited a moment before she continued.

“I think he’s attached to you because he doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

“What? How’s that possible? Every kid should have friends.”

“Well, he doesn’t. He never really has and moving here hasn’t done much to make him more sociable. But he likes you, although I can’t imagine why.”

Emma rolled her eyes.

“Maybe it’s because he sees you as his peer and not his superior,” Regina added, “but no matter the reason, I think this could be…good for him.”

“Really? Because I don’t see how having an adult as a kid’s only friend could ever be a good thing. That’s how he stays isolated.”

“Well then it’s a good thing _you’re_ not an adult.”

“Yeah, insulting me isn’t the best way to ask for my help. I mean, that is what you’re doing, right? Asking for my help? Because I don’t remember asking for more time to hang out with your kid.”

Regina clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides.

“Yes,” Regina answered through gritted teeth. “I’m asking for your help. I’m asking that you continue to be in Henry’s life, but with some provisions.”

Emma exaggeratedly sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

“I can already tell this is not gonna go well,” Emma said.

“I have to try something and he’s made it obvious he likes spending time with you. I just want him to be happy and right now, that means letting you into our lives. That is, if you’ll abide by my rules. Can you do that?”

“Why don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do and I’ll see if it’s possible.”

“Alright. The first thing that needs to happen is you need to keep all of your…conquests out of the house while Henry’s around.”

“You make me sound like a careless, womanizing pig,” Emma grinned.

“Please, I’ve heard my son tell me about all the women that come out of your house and he’s only known you for close to two weeks. How you want to live your life is fine. Just don’t give my son the wrong idea about how he should live his.”

“Is this just about how many sexual partners I have in a single week or is this about them being the same sex as me?”

“You can sleep with whoever you want, dear. In fact, it can be beneficial to Henry that you seem to prefer women. Growing up around diversity can increase the rate of tolerance and acceptance. I just don’t want him to think he can go through partners like a revolving door.”

“Got it.”

“Also, I don’t want Henry to ever personally meet any of the women you bring here.”

“They can’t meet him if I’m with them while he’s out somewhere. That’s rule number one, right? Keep it away from his innocent little eyes?”

Regina huffed.

“It’s important I know who’s in my son’s life, that they’re people I can count on, and more importantly, people _Henry_ can count on. Do I need to be worried about you, Miss Swan?”

“Absolutely not. If the kid comes around, I’ll be on my best behavior. Otherwise, I’ll keep living my lovely life of sin and I promise not to bother you.”

“Good. I’m glad there’s something we can agree on.”

“Is that it? May I be excused now,” Emma asked just to piss her off.

“No. If he comes to your house after school, or at any time at all, you will be responsible for him. He’ll be in your care, and you better take _good_ care of him, before I pick him up. _Now_ that’s it.”

“Great,” Emma stood up. “Oh, but so I understand, what exactly would you do if I broke one of your rules?”

“Don’t test me. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Right. Well, I don’t want to hold up the rest of your night. Guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other…Neighbor.”

Regina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Oh,” Emma whipped around again to face Regina. “And if the kid’s offer still stands, I’d love to do yoga with you sometime.”

Emma’s eyes trailed up Regina’s body from head to toe with a smirk on her face.

“I think you’d really be able to help with my flexibility.”

Emma chuckled then turned and left only after she saw Regina’s reaction, which was to scoff and turn away from her.

After the door closed and Regina started to shuffle around the kitchen, Henry’s lips curled into a wide and bright smile from his place crouched down and hidden from sight on the stairs. He quietly went upstairs like he was supposed to have done a while ago then grabbed a small notebook out of his desk. He wrote something in it, scratched something out, and then slipped it under a few bigger notebooks in his desk drawer. He’d need it again later, but for the time being he wanted to make sure no one other than him saw it. If anyone caught on to his new plan, he’d never get it to work.

At first, he thought moving for his mother’s new job wasn’t going to be the best thing for them. He was going to be changing schools so he’d have to get used to new hallways and schedules and it would take time before he could bond with the teachers, if they even let him bond with them like they did at his last school. Plus, he was over an hour away from his grandparents compared the forty minute drive it was from his last house, and he loved to visit them. The farther they were from his grandparents, the harder he thought it might be to see them as often as he’d seen them before the move.

But after the last week with Emma, he gave their move a second thought and a second chance. Maybe moving was the best thing for him and his mom. Neither he nor Regina had truly been happy before so maybe a fresh start was what they needed. Only time and the potential success of his plan would tell, but he felt hopeful things would all work out. One way or another, he would prove that they could be happy there and finally have a happily ever after like all the fairy tale characters from the stories his mom and grandpa read to him before bed when he was younger.


	2. Chapter 2

Sweat dripped down her lower back and beads of it formed on her forehead. A combination of rock and pop music blasted through her earbuds on her usual workout playlist while her ponytail swished side to side with every stride she took.

Every weekend Emma had a ritual. She ran a mile every morning on weekdays and two miles on Saturdays and Sundays. The weekend runs were around the more scenic parts of the city, along the beach and park and local shops that garnered a small amount of foot traffic, while on the weekdays she only stuck to the neighborhood and maybe, if it didn’t add up to a mile, she did a short lap around the duck pond at the park.

That particular Saturday, she weaved from one trail to the next at the park and had a good flow going, good momentum. She paced herself well and though she panted as she ran, her breathing was normal for her speed. It was a nice run on a nice day and she felt calm, healthy, good.

“Emma!”

The blonde whipped her head to the side and spotted the cause for her distraction. She puffed out a heavy sigh and pulled out her earbuds as she slowed her run.

“Henry,” she breathlessly greeted with a hint of surprise in her voice.

He smiled at her from a bench on a cement pathway a small, grassy hill away from the one Emma jogged bseide. He was with his mother, of course, and as soon as he saw Emma he bolted from Regina’s side.

Regina wasn’t too pleased, but Emma wasn’t all that thrilled either. She agreed to be a decent human being if he came around, but she did not agree to have her private and personal time invaded by a kid. She wasn’t a mom and it wasn’t what she signed up for. So why did she have to suffer like she had?

“You run,” he asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Emma replied and looked down at Henry who stood in front of her then over at Regina who was still on the bench, her eyes fixated on the two of them. “It’s exercise. Gets the blood pumping and keeps you healthy and fit.”

“So you run a lot?”

“Every day.”

“Like my mom does yoga every day.”

Emma nodded.

“I still think you should join her. And maybe she should go running with you. It would give you two time to talk and get to know each other.”

“Henry,” Emma warningly said.

“Be friends,” Henry added and disregarded Emma’s attempt to quiet him.

“I’m telling you, it’s not gonna work.”

“Bu you haven’t even tried. Come on,” Henry said and took Emma’s hand.

The kid tugged her along, over the two hills, and brought her to Regina.

“Hey, Mom, can Emma hang out with us,” he asked.

“What? Kid, I haven’t even finished my run. I’m also really sweaty. I probably smell.”

“Probably,” Regina asked with a raised brow and, after a few seconds, a grin. “I only wish I had deodorant or some car fresheners to dangle from your ears in my purse.”

“Mom, don’t be mean. You really don’t smell, Emma. Not too much, anyway.”

Regina chuckled and Emma rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Ha, ha. Very funny. Yeah, laugh it up, but you know,” Emma trailed off as she reached down and pulled the small towel she carried with her out of the waistband of her running shorts. She dabbed her sweat-slicked face, chest, and arms with it then rubbed it against Regina’s neck and chest.

“Ooh. Oh!”

Regina tried to swat her away, but Emma just moved the towel somewhere else and flicked her wrist to tickle Regina’s face with it at a quick pace like a mop wiped across a floor. She made sure the brunette shared every piece of evidence of her morning’s accomplishments with her.

Henry laughed as he watched.

“I’m not the only one that stinks now,” Emma finally said.

“Get your filthy sweat towel off of me,” Regina demanded.

Emma chuckled and Henry beamed at them. She ruffled the towel through Regina’s hair a little before she relented and tucked the towel back into her shorts.

Regina smacked Emma’s arm and Emma just continued to laugh.

“See why we can’t be friends,” Emma asked Henry. “Your mom doesn’t know how to relax.”

Regina and Henry had been in town for almost two weeks at that point. Henry had come over to Emma’s house almost every day since they moved in and Henry controlled most of the conversation. He rarely talked about himself and seemed to make it his mission to convince Emma she should be Regina’s friend. He never really said why he wanted them to be friends, but he kept trying to find what little things the two women had in common. Still was, apparently.

She barely knew either one of them, but they didn’t know her either. All she knew about her neighbors were that Henry was persistent and Regina always wore impeccable pantsuits and black skirts. Her hair might also have only stopped at her shoulders and she never wore it in an up-do, but figuratively speaking the other woman never let her hair down. She was a stickler for order and therefore seemed to lack even a single fun bone in her entire body.

Since the three of them rarely spent any time together and hardly knew each other, Emma had already started to tease and play with Regina like they were friends just as Henry wanted, or at least on the path to friendship. It wasn’t quite the case, but instead it was just Emma not taking kindly to being made fun of for the after effects of her morning run. The way she reacted was just her style, too. It was a bold move to force a sweat towel in a near-stranger’s face like they at least knew more about each other than their names and Emma was a bold person. She either made people uncomfortable or she pushed them enough in just the right way to get them to loosen up like her, expand their comfort zone. It was all part of her charm.

Regina fluffed up her hair and scrunched up her face with disgust as she felt dampness wherever Emma had dragged her towel across her.

“I should really go,” Emma said to both of them. “Enjoy the rest of your day. I’ll be getting back to my run.”

Henry frowned and Emma waved at them before she started to jog away. At almost the last minute, before she was too far away from them, Emma turned to face mother and son and jogged backward so she could leave Regina with a few parting words.

“I’m still kind of into that whole ‘yoga partners’ thing. You know, if you think you can handle it,” Emma teased.

Regina rolled her eyes and scoffed.

* * *

After Emma conquered all the trails at the park that she wanted to that day, she took a detour on her way back home. Once a week she took the same detour at the end of her runs and jogged the short distance from the park to another neighborhood she knew very well. Ruby Lucas’ neighborhood.

She jogged up to the pathway that led to the front door then stopped. She took a deep breath to calm her heartrate and blotted the towel against her face before she stepped forward onto the pathway. Emma walked up to the door and rang the bell then stuck the towel back into her shorts while she waited.

Ruby answered the door with a smile, her brown hair long and free from a ponytail unlike Emma’s, and stood in a red shirt that hugged her breasts and flat stomach with a pair of tight, dark-washed jeans and knee-high black boots. She wore her signature tan belt with a silver, wolf buckle and her makeup was simple but always made her look stunning. She had a natural beauty Emma would kill to have and she was well in shape. It wasn’t that long ago when she used to run with Emma on weekends, but family came first with Ruby ever since her mother left her to be raised by her grandmother at the tender age of seven. Because of that, Ruby had family related matters to handle on her time off from work when she would usually go running with Emma and because Ruby had been abandoned by her mother, Emma and Ruby easily connected and instantly became best friends.

“Ruby, who is it,” a familiar and brusque voice called out from the kitchen.

Emma grinned when she heard her.

“It’s just Emma, Granny,” Ruby yelled back with an annoyed expression on her face.

“Oh,” Granny said as she appeared with a large rolling pin in her hands in the hall just outside of the kitchen and in full view of the foyer where Emma and Ruby stood.

The woman had gray hair and wasn’t at all in shape. She wasn’t unhealthy overweight, but she had more fat than muscle and definitely couldn’t outrun anyone. She’d make it to the end of the block then keel over, huffing and puffing while she attempted to catch her erratic and shallow breath. That had less to do with her weight, however, and more to do with her age.

“What the hell are you holding that for,” Ruby asked as she looked from her grandmother to the rolling pin. “You weren’t even baking!”

“I thought there might be trouble,” Granny argued. “I was just being prepared.”

Emma laughed.

“And you thought a _rolling pin_ would stop trouble,” the blonde asked.

“Why don’t you come over here and let me show you just what kind of damage this rolling pin can do, Girl,” Granny threatened with a raised eyebrow.

Emma laughed harder and Ruby smirked. A moment later, Granny smiled and winked at Emma before she lowered the rolling pin.

“Nice to see you, Emma,” Granny properly greeted her. “Are you staying for breakfast? I’ve got quiche in the oven.”

“Uh, sure,” Emma perked up then looked to Ruby for permission.

Ruby sighed and shook her head with a smile, amused.

“Of course you’d agree to stay after the promise of free food,” Ruby said then stepped aside and motioned toward the general interior of the house. “Come on in.”

“Thanks, Rubes,” Emma said with a smug smile and walked inside. Ruby closed the door behind her and Emma headed toward the kitchen. “Mm, smells good.”

“It _is_ good,” Granny said before she disappeared into the kitchen and Emma and Ruby followed after her. “My cooking is always good.”

“No arguments here,” Emma assured as she and Ruby entered the kitchen.

Emma plopped down into one of two chairs at the island counter and Ruby gracefully settled into the chair beside her.

Granny had come to live with Ruby a couple months prior due to her weakening health. Her heart and her bones weren’t as strong as they used to be twenty years ago and while her reflexes were still sharp, they somehow weren’t sharp enough when it came to saving herself from a slip-and-fall event. That was exactly what had happened that brought Granny to Ruby’s house. Granny detested assisted living and loathed nursing homes. She insisted she didn’t need to be placed in either and Ruby tried to convince her that while she didn’t need a nursing home, assisted living might actually be good for her. Granny was stubborn, though, and instead Ruby had come up with the solution to let her live in the house with her until she absolutely needed more care than Ruby could provide.

Granny, when she was still on her own in a small townhouse nearby, wasn’t clumsy, but she occasionally experienced vertigo. More recently and somewhat frequently, Granny became too dizzy to stand and even when she had something to reach out and help her catch herself before she fell, those more-brittle-than-not bones of hers made it almost impossible for her to hold herself upright. Whenever Ruby went to visit her, she often saw signs of pain and then saw the bruises that had brought on that pain. There weren’t always a lot of bruises, but they were big bruises and they were usually in the worst places like her hips, shins, and arms. Granny didn’t need protecting from other people as long as she had a weapon—like a rolling pin—but she apparently needed protection from herself.

“So,” Emma started to say while Granny opened the oven and checked the progress of the quiche. “How’s your love life been since you took her in?”

“Uh, you mean my _sex_ life,” Ruby asked. “Belle loves Granny. She doesn’t mind that she’s staying with me. She actually thinks it’s sweet.”

“Which means you definitely don’t have a problem getting laid with Granny around. Apparently it means you get laid _more_ now that she’s here.”

“You do know this kitchen is small and I can hear you, right,” Granny asked as she shut the oven and turned around to face the younger women. “Besides, even if this kitchen wasn’t small, my hearing is still as impressive as it ever was.”

Emma grinned and Ruby’s cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink.

“That lovely girl Belle takes her out places,” Granny continued. “And if they do anything, they know not to do it here.”

Ruby’s cheeks tinted further to a full on embarrassed shade of red. She looked down at the counter space and tried not to grin or laugh. It was funny, but to have her grandmother talk about her sex life so freely was just awkward.

Emma chuckled.

Ruby glared at her friend then took a moment before she decided to ask, “How’s _your_ love life, Emma?”

Granny immediately laughed. There was no joke in Ruby’s question, but Granny already found it amusing. It didn’t take long to understand why.

“She hasn’t had a dry spell since she quit being a bail bondsperson slash bounty hunter,” Granny said. “She probably just got some last night. How right am I?”

“Um, actually, you’re not right this time.”

“What,” both Granny and Ruby asked with slack jaws.

“I have this new neighbor and she’s got this kid.”

“Whoa, wait. Back it up, Semi-Stud,” Ruby interrupted. “ _She_?”

“Yeah, there’s this woman who just moved in next door with her kid. He’s always hanging around my place when he’s not at school so I haven’t really been getting out there.”

“So this woman’s got a son?”

“Yeah, he’s like ten or something. Kind of dorky looking, like a nerd or something if you ask me.”

“But this woman,” Granny cut in, “how is she?”

Emma’s eyebrows shot up toward her hairline. “You almost sound like you’re _interested_.”

“Please,” Granny shook her head. “I don’t feel that way about women and I haven’t been with a man since my dear husband passed _years_ ago. You know that. I just like to live a little vicariously through you two. Even if it means hearing about lady loving, which is not something I myself would do but don’t mind at all that _you two_ do. Now what’s she like?”

“Prickly,” Emma replied. “She’s so uptight. I haven’t seen her smile once and the kid swears she and I could make good friends.”

“So her kid wants you to befriend her,” Ruby asked. “Why won’t you? You’re neighbors, right? Is she not up to your standards? If she’s not me or you don’t want to bang her you just don’t think about being friends with another woman?”

“Oh come on, Ruby, you know that’s not true. I’m friends with Belle and I don’t want to sleep with her. And it’s not about looks with me. Well, not entirely. Yeah, I’ve got a type, but I’ll pretty much sleep with any woman.”

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Okay, first off, Belle doesn’t count because she’s _my_ girlfriend so you _better not_ want to sleep with her. Secondly, yeah, you’ll sleep with many a woman. Fine, you don’t discriminate, but that’s sex. That’s not friendship.”

“I just…I don’t know. She’s…weird. Like, she’s too guarded and she seems so cold and distant. You, you’re warm and fun and you actually do shit. I swear all Regina does is work and look after her kid and maybe eat and sleep, but nothing else. How can you be friends with someone so absolutely different than you?”

“Uh, duh! Opposites attract,” Ruby argued.

“Yeah, yeah,” Emma brushed it off. “She’s…well, she’s actually really hot, but she’s not even a _little_ fun. I can’t see myself talking and hanging out with a stick in the mud.”

“But how do you know she’s not fun,” Granny piped up again just as the oven beeped. She turned and slipped on oven mitts then pulled open the oven and grabbed the quiche. She set it down on the cooling rack she had set up on the island and said, “You don’t hardly know her from what it sounds like. You probably only see her when she leaves for work and when she gets home. How could you possibly know what she does or doesn’t do that might constitute as fun?”

“Because she never leaves her house unless it’s for work,” Emma answered. “Except for today, but she was at the park with her kid. That’s not fun, that’s just being a mom.”

That time Ruby’s eyebrows jumped toward her hairline. “Wait, she was at the park today? While you were running?”

“Yeah, her kid dragged me over to the bench they were sitting at when he saw me. We talked for a few seconds, she told me I smelled, so I rubbed my dirty towel all over her.”

“Is that what you kids call what you do,” Granny asked, genuinely curious. Ruby snorted in response.

“Yeah, Em, what kind of euphemism is that?”

“It’s not a euphemism! I wiped my towel over myself and made it all sweaty just so I could make her kind of sweaty so she smelled too.”

“Oh boy,” Granny said and rid herself of the oven mitts as she placed them back in their rightful drawer.

“Okay, maybe you two _can’t_ be friends,” Ruby agreed. “She probably sees you as an adult child. You’d probably have a better relationship with her son than you would with her.”

“I’d agree with you on that except that we both know how I feel about kids.”

“But it’s not like he’s a baby. He can take care of himself for the most part. I just thought you didn’t like them when they were overly dependent.”

Emma shrugged.

“I just don’t like kids in general. The more dependent they are, the more I don’t like them, but just…kids. They’re so young and impressionable and it’s weird. I live in the adult world. I don’t want to have to lower the rating of how I live my life just so they don’t see the wrong thing or get the wrong idea about something. I don’t want to field their questions all day and I don’t like making sacrifices just because it’s better for them if I give something up.”

“Oh, honey, let’s face it,” Granny said and leaned over on her elbows on the island. “You just don’t want the responsibility or _account_ ability that comes with children.”

“Maybe not, but everything else is true, too,” Emma stated. “Plus, we all know I’d be horrible with kids. They may be brutally honest, but they can’t handle the kind of truths I know. The truths most adults know. There’s a child’s honesty and then there’s my tactless self. I don’t want to sugarcoat anything because this life, this world, isn’t full of rainbows and unicorns and sweetness and I wouldn’t lie, even to a kid, about that because people shouldn’t expect a freaking fairy tale happy ending.”

“You should know better than anyone there are plenty of unicorns around here,” Ruby joked and suggestively raised her eyebrows with a smirk.

Emma rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do, and you’re just bitter and cynical.”

“Can you blame me?”

Ruby shook her head and answered, “Of course not, but you shouldn’t live under a rain cloud because of your past, Eeyore.”

Emma scoffed and punched Ruby in the arm.

“Ow,” Ruby frowned and rubbed where Emma hit her. “That’s probably gonna leave a bruise.”

“Good,” Emma smiled.

Ruby pursed her lips and looked deviously at Emma before she punched her in return.

Emma feigned a gasp then tried to hit Ruby again when Granny cut in.

“Girls, don’t make me pull you two apart.”

“What are you gonna do, Granny? Beat us with your rolling pin,” Ruby asked through her laughter as she and Emma playfully and less aggressively smacked and slapped each other.

“Or maybe I’ll find a new use for my favorite spatula,” Granny said as she pulled the mentioned spatula out of the drawer on her side of the island. She swatted it gently against her hand in warning and raised an eyebrow that said, _Give me a reason_.

Emma and Ruby both pulled their hands away from each other and settled down. Emma cleared her throat and Ruby ran a hand through her hair to fix it even though it didn’t need much fixing. They kept their hands to themselves and Granny proudly grinned before she put the spatula back into the drawer and retrieve a pie cutter.

“Wow, Ruby,” Emma said slightly under her breath even though she knew Granny could hear her. “We’re in our late twenties and your grandmother almost spanked us with a spatula.”

Ruby tried and failed to hold back a chuckle then replied, “If she wasn’t my Granny I’d say that’s kinky.”

Emma cupped a hand over her own mouth and laughed into it, unsuccessful to stifle the laughter.

Granny used the pie cutter to divvy up the quiche into eight, triangular pieces then used it to lift a slice and place it on one of the two plates on the countertop. She served the plate to Emma then turned and retrieved a third plate while Ruby helped herself to a slice when Granny’s back was turned. When Granny faced them again, she gave Ruby a knowing look and Ruby just smiled at her like she’d done nothing wrong and pulled her plate closer to her.

Granny handed them each a fork then served herself before she shooed the younger women out of the kitchen and into the dining room straight across the hall.

* * *

Henry knew better than to eavesdrop, but he was a curious boy. He listened in while his mom was on the phone, yet again, with his grandfather. Just before they moved to the new city, he’d overheard his mom call him once a day and talk to him about everything. Sometimes everything was just a run-down of her boring day and sometimes everything was a moment or a thing that reminded Regina of something that had happened in her past. Henry knew he really shouldn’t listen in on such personal conversations, but he couldn’t help himself. His mother had a lot of good days, but for the last few months she’d had a lot of bad ones as well.

“Do you think you could visit tomorrow,” Henry heard Regina ask as he sat on the stairs and listened to his mother who paced in the living room as she talked to her father. “I’d really like you to see the house and I know Henry would love to see you, as would I.”

Henry frowned at the tone of his mother’s voice. She sounded desperate and pleading as she spoke to his grandfather and it worried him to hear her so anxious, like his grandfather’s presence could make all the difference and possibly save her from her not-so-happy thoughts. He wasn’t sure how his mother felt or what drove her to sound so desperate on the phone, but he could imagine she was thoroughly upset about something with the way she sounded and it worried him.

“It would have been our twelfth anniversary today,” Regina told her father. “That is if we’d ever gotten married.”

Henry’s eyes widened, shocked. He never knew his mother had been engaged. He hadn’t known his mother to even date anyone let alone be involved enough with someone to have an anniversary. That would definitely explain her recent sadness.

“If _she_ hadn’t pushed him away,” Regina started again, “maybe we could’ve been together. If we’d been together, maybe he’d still be alive. I know he would’ve loved Henry.”

So his mother had been almost married to a guy one time and he was dead. He never knew his father and Regina never talked about him, dodged every question about it, so maybe that was why. She loved his father then she lost him and it was just too painful to talk about.

Even if his grandfather visited them the next day, it still wouldn’t be soon enough. Regina needed comfort and company right away and Henry wasn’t sure he could give her the kind she needed. If she was asking for her father she probably needed an adult. She needed someone she could talk to, not someone she withheld the truth from because maybe it was better or easier if Henry never knew. Maybe she was trying to protect him if the man his mother talked about was indeed his father. That part really didn’t matter, though, because Regina needed something right away and while Henry started to head the rest of the way down the stairs to give her a hug, she needed more than her son. He wanted to be enough for her in her time of need, but it didn’t seem right for a mother to solely lean on her son when she needed a shoulder to cry on.

While Regina started to wrap up her phone call, Henry wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a light squeeze.

“Oh,” Regina breathed out as she brought a hand around Henry’s back, the phone still in her other hand. “Henry.”

He closed his eyes and hugged her a little tighter. He felt more than heard her sigh before she rested her chin on the crown of his head. He didn’t want her to be alone that night, even if the day had a certain significance to her that probably shouldn’t be tainted by what he was about to do. He had to do it, though. He had to do something. It was all he could really do to help aside from giving her a hug and pretending he didn’t know as much as he did.

“What are you doing, sweetheart? Is everything okay,” Regina asked before he pulled out of the embrace.

He shook his head and said, “I’m okay. I just wanted to give you a hug.”

He would never tell her he’d listened to her phone call and he’d never admit that he knew she was sad. He knew she did her best to mask her pain in front of him. She prided herself on looking stronger than she might actually be because she had to be Henry’s rock when he needed her, not the other way around. It was her selflessness that drove Henry to do what he did next. For his mother.

“Thank you,” Regina gave him a watery smile, obviously on the verge of tears though she held them back for the moment.

Henry smiled at her then walked back over to the stairs to allow his mother some privacy to finish her conversation with his grandfather. He went up to his room, didn’t stop and wait on the stairs to keep listening, and then slipped out his window and walked along the roof until he hesitated at the edge. He took a deep breath then reached out for the sturdy branch of the tree that grew over the rooftop in the backyard. He swung forward and latched onto the branch with both his arms and legs like a koala bear. He shimmed down the branch toward the trunk then climbed down the rest of the way until he jumped off the tree and landed on his feet in the yard. He brushed himself off then jogged around the side of the house that ran alongside the fence that separated their yard from the neighbor’s. He slipped around the fence near the front of the house then hurriedly made his way up the small, steep steps in front of the neighbor’s house.

He rang the bell then looked around nervously as if he was going to be caught at any moment. It took a minute, but sooner rather than later the door opened and Emma appeared in the doorway with her head cocked and a less than pleased expression on her face.  

“Kid, what are you doing here,” she tiredly asked like he was the last thing she needed today.

“Come over for dinner,” he blurted out. “It’ll be ready in half an hour. Ring the bell around then and don’t tell my mom I invited you.”

Emma stepped back from the door and her shocked, wide eyes blinked several times as confusion and disbelief overtook her features. “What?”

“Please,” Henry whined with a screwed up look on his face. “I know it’s strange to just ask like this, but it’s important.”

With that, Henry dashed away and disappeared behind the fence as he went back the way he came. As he left Emma’s porch he heard her call out after him.

“Wait. Kid! What the hell?!”

Henry climbed up the tree and snuck back into his room, his momentary escape gone unnoticed by his mother as he heard clanging and other movement downstairs through his closed bedroom door. He wasn’t sure Emma would actually listen to him, but he hoped she showed up. He also hoped Regina wouldn’t mind if the blonde intruded on a day that was supposed to have been special for his mother once upon a time.


End file.
